Work to start on world’s tallest tower in April

Work to start on world’s tallest tower in April

Work to build the world’s first 1km-high building, the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, is set to begin on 27 April.

The $1.2bn (RM4bn) project has been plagued by setbacks since it was first proposed in 2011, but above-ground work on the Jeddah super skyscraper will commence next month.

The centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development, located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah, Kingdom Tower is designed to be over 1,000m tall (3,280ft), encompassing a total construction area of 530,000m2 (5.7mn ft2).

The building will have 200 floors in total, 160 of which are habitable. The slender structure will be more than three times bigger than Europe’s tallest building, The Shard, and will overtake the 828m Burj Khalifa in Dubai to become the tallest building in the world.

The complex will contain 59 elevators, including five double-deck elevators.

Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the tower is slated to reach completion over a timescale of 63 months. Foundation work began in December 2013.